Ripon Northern Traveller 12th October 2013

One of the shiftiest venues I’ve ever sailed in with 180 degree wind shifts common which just added to the competitive environment and increased frustration when the wind didn’t play in your favour.

However, the race officer did an amazing job setting some great courses making it as fair as possible with the wind shifts and we had an extremely enjoyable day. A great turnout of 15 boats and it was nice to see some of the local boats turning up and lots of new young faces that we’ll hopefully see more of in the future.

Northern Travellers 2013

What a wonderful Northern Traveller Series we have had this year! A range of clubs across the North of the UK hosted brilliant traveller events for us to attend. Ullswater, Otley, Hollingworth, Bassenthwaite, Dee, Filey, Pennine, Beaver and Ripon, welcomed us all dutifully as we plagued the water with our red sails.

We had a brilliant turnout this year, and the weather played on our side for the majority of the weekends. We saw single handers, double handers, masters and children all competing this year and battling it out for the final trophy. It was great to see so many of the squad boats, past and present, taking part and showing everyone how taking part in a squad can develop and improve your sailing as we saw people come from no racing experience at all, to pushing all the experienced sailors aside and showing us that there is fresh meat coming up through the system.

Mirror Open - Pennine SC

What a lovely day to be up in the Pennines for another Northern Traveller! The sun was out and the wind was fresh meaning that racing could go ahead without question. Unfortunately the turnout for the Mirrors was poor with only four boats coming; however the Yorkshire and Humberside Travellers were there which meant that the Mirrors could join in with them making the starts harder and the fleet a bit bigger. The racing was also a bit different as instead of 3 hour long races, we did 5 races, one about 45 minutes and the other 4 half an hour each. This meant that we had to use our best tactics on the start line and rather than make places, we had to hold them.

Mirror Open - Pennine SC

What a lovely day to be up in the Pennines for another Northern Traveller! The sun was out and the wind was fresh meaning that racing could go ahead without question. Unfortunately the turnout for the Mirrors was poor with only four boats coming; however the Yorkshire and Humberside Travellers were there which meant that the Mirrors could join in with them making the starts harder and the fleet a bit bigger. The racing was also a bit different as instead of 3 hour long races, we did 5 races, one about 45 minutes and the other 4 half an hour each. This meant that we had to use our best tactics on the start line and rather than make places, we had to hold them.